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i have eleven happy chickens, they are out during the day scratching for food, but it is difficult when there is snow on the ground!! i buy an organic egg layer mix. . . guess i should read what exactly is in the mix. i also give them all of our table scraps since i cannot compost in the winter and the LOVE them. we get bright orange yokes!

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Ummmm.....If you're planning to let the chickens lose where your garden is, you better fence the garden. They will destroy it!
Or an easier solution: google chicken tractors. YOu can even find instructions on how to build one yourself. Then your chickens can stay in there and you can move that around in your yard so they are still "cage free", but you just limit where they can go.

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One thing that chickes like and is actually good for them is sea shells. YOu can also use the shells of the eggs, just make sure you brak them in tiny pieces, because if you throw the hole thing for them to pick on, they might learn to crack the shells of the fresh eggs.

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How's it going with the chickens? I have 75 babies out in my woodshed right now, kept in with chicken wire and cardboard boxes around the bottom to keep out drafts. They are feathering in nicely. 50 are free-range meat birds, from this hatchery: Home - Freedom Ranger Hatchery

I love them cause they're not Frankenbirds like the Cornish Rocks, but still put on good meat.

We are getting ready to build chicken tractors for them and will move them daily so they will grow on plenty of grass and bugs.

25 are layers; some cockerels. We'll keep the mellow ones and the nasty roosters will become either capons or chicken stock. Homemade pastured chicken stock is SO GOOD; have I mentioned that? It is practically solid out of the fridge because of all the gelatin. We use the feet and organs (not the liver) in it too. Chicken feet make the best stock!

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The dark orange yolks are from pasturing. The more grass, bugs and worms they eat, the tastier and darker the egg yolks (and healthier, it's been shown via lab tests that pastured chickens produce eggs with more omega-3s and various vitamins, including more D, than factory-farmed hens or hens raised in a coop with no access to pasture).

Mine eat corn, it's not a problem. This is the feed I use. I wish I could use organic but simply can't afford it right now. (We have done it in the past.)